


Prey, Predator, Power

by chandrilas



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: First Meetings, Kylo gets a murder boner, Kylux Positivity Week (Star Wars), M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:55:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29840475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chandrilas/pseuds/chandrilas
Summary: Day 4 of Kylux Positivity Week: 'oh no, he's hot!'Or, in another term, Kylo ren vastly underestimates Armitage Hux upon their first meeting in the Finaliser.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Comments: 9
Kudos: 80





	Prey, Predator, Power

"General Hux?" 

  
Kriff hated this part of the job. 

Lieutenant Davenport didn't often complain about being part of the ever-churning wheel that was the First Order; in fact, Davenport took pride in being a cog in the next generation imperial effort. However, seeing and reporting to individual members of the Order wasn't the Lieutenant's forte. 

It wasn't fear! Davenport would instead guzzle Rancor shit than admit that he was intimidated by younger personnel who didn't hold a candle to the years of experience that the Lieutenant harboured. His father before him had served under the Empire whilst some of these jumped up, drunk on ambition Generals and Privates barely existed!   
Davenport followed protocol like oxygen, top marks in everything he submitted and never relinquished a mistake in his reports. He was the prime example of who should lead the First Order into a new era of historic triumph- and yet it was a man twenty years his junior that had him running around like a lapdog. 

The son of Brendol Hux was nothing compared to the superiority that his father had. 

And the rumours... 

"Yes?" Came to an irritable reply, the General not even bothering to look away from his data work. 

"An encrypted datapad with your next assignment... sir." 

"Hm. Leave it on the desk." 

Internally, the Lieutenant seethed as he placed the tablet upon the desk and waited to be dismissed. 

Which never came. 

Davenport waited. 

Kept waiting. 

"Sir, if that is all, I'll-" 

"I did not dismiss you." Hux's crisp tone rang around the room. 

Davenport froze beyond the strict regulation posture. A mixture of both anger and something else he could not place coursed through his body as he trained his eyes on the space behind the General's head, refusing to let the emotion slip over his carefully curated imperial face. 

Eventually, General Hux looked away from his previous work and lifted the pad to inspect the contents. Davenport steamed through a particularly vulgar internal monologue about his superior, with enough phrases to even make Lord Vader turn in his grave. 

General Hux was another prime example of youthful ignorance and a blatant lack of respect. 

"Have you encountered these 'Knights of Ren'?"   
  
Davenport stuttered slightly and looked to the General. "Sir?" 

"Knights of Ren, have you encountered them?" Hux demanded impatiently, finally looking up to the Lieutenant. 

For a moment, just a brief one, Davenport's heart froze up at the sight of the General finally looking at him. Cold and calculated and, for a second, more frightening then Brendol Hux had ever been. 

Davenport cleared his throat. "There has been some... chatter within the Mess Hall, sir." 

"Chatter in the Mess Hall?" Hux sneered. "Lieutenant, I want viable information, not mindless gossip exchanged with foot soldiers after doing kriff all." 

The Lieutenant felt colour flood his face. 

"This f- Stormtroopers did a recon mission with the Knights, sir. Accompanied them and their leader to a planet in the outer rim to find some relic-" 

Something he had said caught the General's attention. "Their leader?" He inquired as he stood from his desk. Davenport loathed that even after (assuming) being sat for hours, the lack of creasing or dishevelment was nowhere to be seen. 

"Yes. I do not know anything about the group's leader, other than he was searching for something." 

General Hux stood facing the Trooper training rooms, to which his office overlooked. Something Davenport had said garnered the interest of some kind regarding the nature of Ren's mysterious Knights. Perhaps, and he really hoped, that whatever mission Hux had been assigned to include these beasts of the Old World. Creatures to put the General in his place. 

One could only hope. 

"Lieutenant, gather information on these Knights of Ren and their leader. I want to know as much as possible." Hux mused with his back to him. "Bring it to me within the hour, and keep out of the Mess Hall. Dismissed." 

Davenport forced a curt bow before walking as fast as regulation would allow, out of the door and down the hall. 

Feeling such embarrassment in his company! To be mocked like he was some brainless Trooper who's purpose was to patrol the perimeter! Rage boiled under the senior's skin as he stormed into the Data Recon room. 

He preciously hoped that whoever these Knights of Ren were, that they'd make Hux's life more miserable beyond human capability, especially the leader. 

Lieutenant Davenport relished in his fantasy as he barked orders at the Private.   
  
***   
  
Even from the distance that the Finaliser hung above Ilum, Armitage Hux could not deny that the planet held a rare beauty, even with a gaping wound that housed the Galaxy's most potent superweapon. Hux had given life and built a superweapon from the ground up that even Snoke had to give admiration for. No ridiculous mystical power, just hard work and brainpower. 

Another round of TIE fighters flew past his window and brought the General back to the Star Destroyer. Understandably Hux would rather be upon Ilum overseeing the construction of Starkiller, but alas, Snoke had other ideas in store for him. 

The new posting wasn't awful, per se; the Finaliser was technically his ship beside some faceless fool under the tutelage of the Supreme Leader- another fanatical idiot who relied on ancient beliefs rather than hard work and tactic. 

Hard-workers were far and few between these days. Exceptions to the grim observation were in the low numbers, and Hux often wished there were more Rae Sloane's and less Lieutenant Davenports, the bumbling idiot. 

Davenport was an old breed of failures, raised on Imperial ideologies that ultimately lost them the war. Imperial Officers and Generals spent more time pushing the blame to another less adequate fool then actual tactical work that could have prevented the destruction of not one but two Death Stars. 

Lieutenant Davenport believed he should sit where Hux fought for, and it did bring a smile to his face, a deliciously smug smile. 

From the corner of his eye, Hux spotted a TIE interceptor and a morbid looking freighter following close behind enter the Finaliser's stratosphere. Ah, the mysterious Knights of Ren had finally answered his invitation, albeit a reluctant one. 

Despite his agnostic approach to the frivolities Snoke and his apprentice engaged in, he knew that his involvement was coming sooner rather than later. Starkiller base was now his secondary concern (in Snoke's eyes); instead, he was now tasked with aiding Kylo Ren in finding Luke Skywalker in what seemed like a Galactic game of hiding and seek. 

It had taken all of Armitage's willpower not to laugh when Snoke had told him, as he valued his life more than revealing to the Supreme Leader how ridiculous he thought it was.   
Ridiculous and time-consuming, but now his primary concern. 

Armitage Hux didn't get where he was from slacking. 

Hard work and patience. 

Patience led to power.   
  
"Sir, Kylo Ren is here to- oh, uh-" 

The durasteel door hissed open as Kylo Ren strode in with little regard for if Hux was ready to receive him, which confirmed one of Armitage's grievances- the idiot hadn't an idiom of the protocol in that large body of his. 

"Come in." Hux drawled, his tone dripping with sarcasm. 

The Knight ignored the retort and approached the desk. "General Hux." He stated as if he was rolling it off his tongue for the first time. Behind the modulated voice, the General could almost sense the amusement. 

Was he expecting someone else? 

"Snoke has told me about you." 

"Excellent. We can avoid pointless small talk." Hux remarked, clasping his hands behind his greatcoat. 

"He believes you're the best person for this... task." Kylo Ren continued as if he wasn't listening to anything Hux had said. 

Hux raised his chin slightly. "And you do not." 

Barbaric, as well as stupid. 

Whilst Hux had done his homework; it seemed that the Knight of Ren hadn't. Unknown to the Force User was that the General would, and has, gotten his hands dirtier, far beyond Ren's wildest dreams. It seemed that everything this man was had been given to him; glory in the dark side, a prowling group of warriors, and an ego that need knocking several notches down. Hux had dragged himself to power with patience and dirty, hard work. He got no benefits from his father, who lived solely off his son's suffering. No, Hux fought long and messy for this. 

Hux gutted Brendol's desire for his son's failure. 

Before any confrontation could begin, the intercom buzzed once more. "General Hux, a Lieutenant Davenport with the report from Ilum." 

"Proceed," Hux answered, his eyes not leaving Kylo Ren's vulgar mask. 

He wondered what was underneath. 

Hux only tore his eyes from the Knight once Davenport reached his desk and dropped (a little too harshly) the datapad on his desk. "The report, sir." 

It was entirely irrelevant since Hux had gotten one sent directly to his quarters. Still, truthfully, he wanted to watch the stuck-up Lieutenant squirm under his presence once more – mostly since Davenport was once again under Hux's thumb. Somewhat unprofessional, the General would agree. But fun, and there was always an apparent lack of it these days. 

"Good." He remarked, noticing the Lieutenant giving Ren a wary look as the man prowled around his office. 

Naturally, by now, he'd dismiss his staff, but Hux wouldn't deny that he enjoyed watching the uncomfortable aura ooze off Davenport, and it seemed both the Lieutenant and Kylo Ren knew it too. 

"Your thoughts are incriminating, Lieutenant." 

Both Hux and Davenport looked to the Knight of Ren, the latter looking like someone had begun squeezing his brain. 

"He curses for being signed under you again. In fact, he'd rather be working in sanitation then be your... slave." Kylo began, drawing deadly still. 

"He thinks you're young and naïve, weak and messy. That you're only here by chance and not hard work, that this was handed to you by your father. He also thinks Brendol Hux was far superior and that the rumours couldn't be true." 

Armitage Hux's cold green eyes imprisoned Davenport. 

"He thinks he could do it better and that the First Order is wasted under your control-" 

"Enough." Hux broke the monologue and slowly sank into his chair, one leg crossed neatly over the other. 

So, this was a test. 

Kylo Ren doubted Hux's power and his overall attitude, which was immediately apparent. He was a predator ensnaring weak prey to sniff out whether Hux was a predator or another weak-willed target to monopolize, control and show to Supreme Leader that the 'Force' was the only option. 

An innovative, if pointless, test. 

Hux was willing to entertain him. 

"Lieutenant Davenport, come here." 

Not even a sniff of disobedience as the fumbling idiot quickly walked over. "S-Sir?" 

"Open the left drawer of my desk." 

The drawer opened, and the Lieutenant stared at a smooth ebony box. 

"Put it on my desk." 

Hux should have pitied him, really. Exposed like a vein and made to perform like a showgirl. 

A soft thud and Davenport stood at his desk again with the box in front of the General. 

"Use the intercom and call for corpse disposal," Hux remarked casually. 

It was like someone had thrown a bucket of ice water over the Lieutenant as he froze, eyes wide like an animal caught in the floodlights. Even the Knight of Ren had looked over to Hux. 

Fear and finality; Hux knew fear better than anyone, but instead of cowering and spending a lifetime running away, he weaponized it. Only by his hand can he turn against himself- not anyone else. Not a mysterious figure he'd never met, not his egotistical apprentice, not his father who was nothing but rotten flesh, and indeed not a foolish and replaceable staff member. 

"G-General?" Davenport gaped. 

"Did I stutter?" Hux snarled quietly. 

Apparently not. The Lieutenant turned and stumbled to the intercom, Hux barely capturing what he said as he poured himself a neat whiskey. He was hoping to savour his first glass on his new ship in the evening, but as it always was, routine barely cooperated. 

Once Davenport had finished and was (reluctantly) standing in front of his superior, Hux opened the box with the soft click and pulled out what looked like a dated blaster. 

"Do you know what this is?" 

"No, sir." 

"Your Mess Hall friends call this a 'slugthrower'. A clever nickname for its more official term: a firearm. These aren't used by the First Order either the Resistance. A rare addition to anyone's collection, even for Outer Rim primitives." Hux mused as he looked over it before directing his sharp gaze to the trembling Lieutenant. 

"You do not believe I killed my father, Lieutenant Davenport?" 

"I... do not." He replied weakly, not entirely sure of the answer himself. 

"You're right. I didn't." 

Silence hung stagnant in the air, an uncomfortable silence. 

"I did, however, watch him die. A nasty slow death; I watched the life leave his body minute by minute. As he gasped for air, begging for his only son to stand up and help him." Hux murmured in a deadly quietness. "Just like you will." 

Mere seconds of momentary chaos as Davenport went to turn and bolt for the door in a useless attempt to save himself before the bullet pierced his left lung and left him sprawled on the floor, leaking like a defective fluid sack. 

No words passed between the General and Kylo Ren as they both observed the gurgling body on his floor. 

"Anything else, Ren?" Hux finally said after a moment of silence, looking to his counterpart. 

_Have I passed your useless test?_

Finally, the Knight looked to Hux and lingered momentarily before leaving without another word, his footsteps leaving little bloody marks as he passed through the growing pool from Davenport. 

General Hux watched him leave before sitting back in his seat and took a long sip from his drink, a slow grin spreading across his face.

Kylo Ren walked until he reached the safety of his quarters. There, once he was finally alone, he yanked off his mask and let it fall limp to his side. 

He had been prepared for many numbers of things; his master challenged him often to test his powers. To condition and to refine the Master of Ren from rough glass to diamond. 

This was a challenge he didn't expect. 

Kylo had foolishly assumed that General Hux would be an ageing politician with little brainpower. How wrong he had been. Armitage Hux hadn't flinched when he shot the Lieutenant. He hadn't waivered when he ordered the man to call for his own corpse disposal. Kylo's breath came out ragged as his head hit the wall with a soft thump, an uncomfortable tightness growing in his trousers. 

Kylo Ren realised at that moment; he was entirely under General's Hux's thumb. 


End file.
